Ann Coulter Monday questioned the effort the Trump administration to deport a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University for his leadership in protests of the Israeli government that have rocked the Ivy League campus.
The right-wing pundit, who boasts of her hardline anti-immigration views, questioned the arrest of student Mahmoud Khalil, who is a permanent resident in the U.S.
“There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport,” Coulter posted on the social media platform X. “But, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?”
The First Amendment and other constitutional rights generally apply to U.S. citizens, but whether they apply to foreigners, even green card-holders like Khalil, is subject to some legal debate.
But advocates for immigrants agree with Coulter that permanent residents like Khalil should not be deported unless they have been convicted of a crime.
Coulter has raised hackles in the past for taking ultra-hardline stands against immigration and immigrants, both legal and undocumented.
She made headlines by saying she wouldn’t vote for former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy because he “is Indian,” though the pharma billionaire is a U.S. citizen.
Khalil, whose pregnant wife is a U.S. citizen, was arrested over the weekend by immigration agents enforcing Trump’s executive orders barring antisemitism, the Department of Homeland Security said.
He has not been charged with any crimes over his activities during campus unrest at the university, which proponents say were aimed at curbing support for Israel and do not amount to antisemitic attacks on Jews.
Brushing aside those concerns, Trump vowed Monday to arrest and potentially deport more pro-Palestinian student activists.
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
Khalil’s wife and lawyers were originally told he was taken to a immigration facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A Department of Homeland Security web site suggested he was moved to a Louisiana detention center.
Defense lawyers are trying to force law enforcement officials to present Khalil in court and allow a judge to decide whether he can be legally deported.